Thank You, Friends...

I have been feeling the need to create lately.  I've dabbled (or re-dabbled) in ATCs and card-making, but that wasn't quite doing it for me.  When I saw the 'favorite stamp' challenge at Stampotique, my first thought was, "Huh?  How am I supposed to pick a favorite??" and my next was that I could try to jam a whole bunch on an art journal page.

I have a stack of various journals that I've collected, and not finished, over the past 10 years.  (I didn't realize I had been art journaling for that long!)  The one I pulled down is little, the size of an A2 card, and made from a variety of patterned papers and copy paper.  These are not necessarily the best bases to work on, but this bad boy needs to be arted up; the last page I did in it was dated May 2011.

I got busy with gesso, Lindy's Magical Shakers, acrylics, inks, stamps, gel pens, Pitt pens, Neocolors, stencils...I dusted off some supplies for sure.  This page is a reminder to myself that I have some great peeps in my life who appreciate my quirkiness.  My co-workers smile and shake their heads as I dance down the hall improv-ing songs for my little kids.  My family has infinite patience with my attempts at being clever and witty (I think quite successfully but they may disagree).  My online friends encourage me in my artistic endeavors and push me to keep going.  So here's to you, friends!

Thank you for joining me in my own little world.

Cheers Birthday Card

Well once the card-making got rolling today I felt the need to go with it.  Here's another card made for MFT's sketch challenge AND birthday challenge.

Finally got to play with my new-to-me Cheers and Wine Service die sets.  Fun!  Now...who's birthday is coming up?  My sister's!

A Card for Tracy (or MFT Sketch Challenge #473)

A long time ago I discovered a fellow artsy friend on Instagram.  Tracy ended up introducing me to a traveling art journal group and then a mixed media ATC artist group.  Both of these groups were incredibly inspiring and kept The Muse busy, productive and interested in making art for several years.

As luck would have it, I ended up with m ol' buddy, Tracy, as a partner in a SwapBot swap this month.  In addition to the decorated envelopes I'm sending her I thought I'd make a card, too.

The inspiration for the card design came from MFT's current sketch challenge.

At first I just had the embossed panel, sentiment and leaves, but it seemed a little boring.  The addition of the gold washi tape and the Versamarked leaves in the right corners (you may have to look closely...time to re-ink my ink pad!) felt much better.

I hope she likes it!

Sympathy Card

These types of cards are so difficult to make, aren't they?  I decided to go this route for the MFT Sketch #471 and MFT Color #133 challenges.  (I love it when you can get a 2-fer on a challenge.)

I have seen a few cards out there lately that have shown dry embossing.  My embossing folders have been gathering dust for ages.  I pulled one out for the white panel.  Other supplies I used (that have been gathering dust) are my alcohol inks and vellum.  This is the first time this MFT 'Deepest Sympathy' set has been inked up, too.  A productive day!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Cheers!

Anything Cold Challenge

We are on Day 2 of Snow Days for school.  I LOVE it!  I didn't think we were going to get snow this year down in the low lands.  Yesterday my youngest and I raced outside and built a snowdude complete with snowboard and goggles (my own little guy isn't so little, he just turned 18, but still is up for playing in the snow with mom.  I love that!).

All of this to say that I've been procrastinating about joining the Paper Smooches Anything Cold challenge.  After a little stint in the brisk morning air I got busy though to create this card.

It's tricky to catch glittery bits, but look closely to see the snowy hillside and sparkly blue sequins in the large snowflakes.

The Paper Smooches set that I used had to pulled down again as I stash away my holiday stamps after Christmas.  I used images from Enchanted Elves and Merry Motifs.

Just in the nick of time, too.  Today's the last day to join the challenge!

Wishing you all warm thoughts.  I'm off to play in the snow again...

Happy Hallowtines Day!

Happy what???  Yes, there is a group of Halloween-lovers on SwapBot and one of our swaps is to create a card for Hallowtines Day - a fun, yet freaky, alternative celebration of Valentines Day.  The lovely couple that I chose to use to grace the front of my card is an image from Stampotique designed by Tracy Scott.

Aren't they fun...and a little freaky?

Of course, I couldn't just send this in a plain ol' envelope.  Here's a little mail art morph of Valentines Day and Halloween:

Happy Valentines, or Hallowtines, Day!

What to do with holiday cards now that Christmas is over...

Almost every year, as the decorations come down and boxes get put away I stare at the festive cards I've received over the holidays and get a little sad about just tossing them in the recycle bin.  This year I repurposed part of  one into an ATC.

This little snow leopard graced the front of a Christmas postcard.  Now he's happily living it up in the mountains.

Cheers!

Snarky Valentine Collection

I haven't been feeling very creative lately.  Hoping for some blast of inspiration, I headed over the ATCsForAll site to see if there were any good swaps up.  Ding ding ding!  What to my starving eyes should appear but a Snarky Valentine swap.  Oh, yeah...sign...me..up!

Here's what I conjured up.

That was fun.  So great to pull out some of my fave Stampotique goodies to play with as well (adding some of these to their 'anything goes' challenge this month).

For all of you lonely hearts out there, I hope these give you a chuckle.

Cheers!